Department for Transport

Railways: Wales

Baroness Randerson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish (1) the specificdetails, and (2) the financial value of each aspect, of the £343 million railways package for Wales, announced on 21 August.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The specific details and the financial value of each aspect of the £343 million railways package for Wales, announced on 21 August, is as follows: Cardiff Central station enhancement£58mDevelopment of South Wales and North Wales main line enhancements£1.99mCambrian Line Signalling upgrade development£3mNew Stations Fund Bow Street station construction£3.99mAccess for All improvements to various stations£4.4mSevern Tunnel Electrification costs£76mCore Valley Lines funding package£196m

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Chilterns

Lord Berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedure was used to change the location of the Chiltern Tunnel North Portal at Frith Hill in South Heath on the HS2 Phase One route; why the change was authorised; andwho authorised that change.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The location of the Chiltern Tunnel North Portal was changed by means of an Additional Provision (known as AP4) to the then HS2 Phase One Bill, introduced on 12 October 2015. The changes brought about by AP4 are therefore part of the Act which subsequently received Royal Assent in 2017. The change was authorised by the Transport Ministers at the time, following a recommendation by the hybrid Bill Select Committee which was established to scrutinise such proposals. The changes aimed to reduce the scale and duration of local construction activity as well as preserve a section of nearby woodland. Further information can be found in the non-technical summary of AP4 available online on the gov.uk website.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Lord Berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to use the Transport and Works Act 1992 order procedure in support of the development of the HS2 Phase One route between London and Birmingham.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The vast majority of the powers needed to build Phase One of HS2 are provided by the High Speed Rail (London to West Midlands) Act 2017. However, it is on occasion necessary to supplement those powers, for example, to resolve an issue that was not anticipated during the period that the Phase One Bill was being scrutinised by Parliament. A means of doing this is to use an Order under the Transport and Works Act 1992 (the TWA). The ‘High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) (Greatmoor Railway Sidings Etc.) Order 2018’ is an example of such an Order which has already been used on the Phase One scheme between London and Birmingham. HS2 Ltd are currently considering an application for a TWA Order relating to the Bromford Tunnel, though no formal application has yet been submitted. The Government does not rule out the use of further TWA Orders in support of Phase One of HS2 where additional authorisation might be considered necessary. Such applications will only be considered where they are deemed to be in the wider public and taxpayer interest, where the amendment provides cost and/or schedule benefits, and where there is sufficient time within the construction programme to accommodate the required process.

Ministry of Justice

Employment Tribunals Service

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that employment tribunal hearings are held on time.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working closely with the Judiciary, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and in consultation with stakeholders to introduce a number of measures to support the delivery of justice. These include the introduction of legal officers (referred to as Tribunal Caseworkers) who will make an important contribution to reducing pressures and allowing Judges to concentrate on hearing cases. The further recruitment of Employment Tribunal (ET) Judges and the deployment of non-ET Judges to sit within the ET system will provide additional capacity.Employment Tribunals have continued to sit during the covid-19 lockdown restrictions by making use of online and remote technology to hear cases and ensure continued access to justice for users. Face to face hearings are now starting to resume where it is safe to do so in line with comprehensive and ongoing risk assessments.Having responded effectively to the immediate crisis, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is now fully focused on recovering its operations to increase courts and tribunals capacity to deal both with normal workloads across jurisdictions and outstanding cases. HMCTS has recently published a progress update on its recovery plans, see attached.The Employment Tribunal Presidents have also published a document setting out how Employment Tribunals operate both now and, in the months, ahead.HMCTS (pdf, 380.7KB)FAQ (pdf, 296.7KB)

Justice and Security Act 2013

Lord Anderson of Ipswich: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progressthey have made towards appointing a reviewer to conduct the five-year review into the operation of sections 6to 11 of the Justice and Security Act 2013.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: A Reviewer has not yet been appointed. I can however advise that discussions are taking place on the appointment of a Reviewer and the establishment of the five-year Review. Both the appointment of the Reviewer and the Review itself will be brought forward as soon as possible.

Child Trust Fund: Mental Capacity

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimatethey have made of the number of young people who do not have the requiredmental capacity to make the decision to access a Child Trust Fund at the age of 18; and what steps they are taking to ensure that such young people do have access to those funds.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: We do not have figures to show what proportion of young people who wish to access a Child Trust Fund at age 18 may lack the mental capacity to make financial decisions.While the parents (or a guardian) of children with disabilities can make decisions on their child’s behalf, once their child turns 18 this situation changes. In order for the parents of adult children to make decisions on their behalf, including in relation to their financial affairs, they must be granted legal powers to do so, either by a Lasting Power of Attorney or by authorisation from the Court of Protection - the specialist court that deals with issues concerning a lack of capacity.We are working with financial institutions to ensure that the parents of young people who do not have the required mental capacity to make the decision to access a Child Trust Fund at age 18 receive advance information about Lasting Powers of Attorney and the possible need to make an application to the Court of Protection, so that the necessary legal powers to access the accounts are obtained in advance of the Child Trust Fund maturing.Fees are payable to register Lasting Powers of Attorney and for applications to the Court. We recognise that these fees may be difficult for some people to afford. Help with Lasting Power of Attorney registration fees, Court of Protection fees and deputy supervision fees is available, depending upon the financial circumstances of the person who lacks mental capacity, and in some cases a full fee exemption may be available.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Human Rights: Females

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) which, of the commitments made at the Girl Summit 2014 have been met; and (a) what progress has been made, and (b) which countries they have engaged with, to seek to end child, early and forced marriage.

Baroness Sugg: Since the Girl Summit the UK has remained at the forefront of global efforts to eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The UK galvanised international agreement on Sustainable Development Goal Target 5.3 on eliminating harmful practices including CEFM and FGM, by 2030. This has created an international mechanism for tracking global progress.The UK invested at least £39 million in UN and civil society programmes to end child marriage between 2015 and 2020 and also tackles child marriage through programmes to promote gender equality and girls' education. We have continued to engage and support partner countries in efforts to end CEFM. For example, 11 countries in Africa and South Asia have developed National Action Plans to end child marriage, with support from UK Aid through the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage. These actions have contributed to a 15% reduction of global prevalence of child marriage over the last decade, averting 25 million child marriages.The UK's dedicated Forced Marriage Unit continues to lead efforts to combat forced marriage in the UK and provides dedicated support to victims and those at-risk. Since 2008, 2,605 Forced Marriage Protection Orders were issued related to marriages undertaken or planning in the UK and overseas.The UK continues to lead the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. Since 2013, £57.5 million has been invested in programmes to end FGM, which have helped Gambia, Nigeria, Mauritania and Sudan to make the practice illegal, and Burkina Faso, Egypt, and Uganda to strengthen their laws, as well as building "The Girl Generation" which has reached over 200 million people across Africa.

Human Rights: Females

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what activities they have planned, if any, to revitalise the commitments made at the Girl Summit 2014, and in particular the commitment to end child, early and forced marriage.

Baroness Sugg: The UK is a global leader in efforts to eliminate Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Ending child marriage will remain a key focus, including as part of our work to deliver the Prime Minister's commitment to champion 12 years of quality education for girls. As the UK's Special Envoy on Girls' Education, I will continue to promote the need for progress on a wider range of issues that hold girls back from accessing a quality education and achieving their potential. This must include global efforts to end child marriage and all forms of violence against girls and women. The UK will use our leadership of the new Global Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence to tackle violence against girls in all its forms. And we will continue to lead the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. In 2018 we announced a further £50 million for efforts to end FGM up to 2025.

Human Rights: Females

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by CRIED, Invisible Targets of Hatred: Socioeconomically Excluded Women from Religious Minority Backgrounds, published on 10 September; and how the findings of this research will be reflected in (1) the UK's dialogue with, and (2) UK Aid programmes in, countries where the ideologically motivated sexual abuse of women and girls from religious minority backgrounds occurs.

Baroness Sugg: As reflected in the CREID report, the UK agrees that we must address the multiple, intersecting forms of violence that women and girls experience in their daily lives.The UK has contributed over £20 million to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, which provides grants to women's rights organisations and other grassroots organisations to support innovative approaches to ending violence against women. This includes projects such as the Free Yezidi Foundation Women's Center, which works in an internally displaced persons camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, providing services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. It is now more important than ever to scale-up effective approaches to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls, including ideologically motivated violence.To respond to the urgent need to scale up violence against women and girls prevention, we are investing £67.5 million in a successor programme to the UK's What Works programme - What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale. This will be the first global effort to systematically scale-up of violence prevention efforts, and pioneer new scalable approaches to tackle violence against the most marginalised women and girls who face multiple forms of discrimination. It is the largest investment by any single donor government to prevent violence against women and girls globally.

Iraq: Armed Conflict

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government how muchwas spent on the wars in Iraq; and how much has been spent subsequently on assisting (1) translators who helped the UK during the wars, and (2) refugees from Iraq displaced by the wars to settle in theUK.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The costs of Operation TELIC, under which all UK military operations in Iraq were conducted from 2003-2011, were £8.164 billion. Operation SHADER, which is working to ensure the lasting defeat of Daesh in Syria and in Iraq cost £1.899 billion to 2019/20. The scheme that we had in place to assist Iraqis who worked for our forces during the conflict - and in certain cases relocate them to the UK - closed in 2010. It is difficult to quantify how much was spent on assisting refugees displaced by the wars in Iraq to settle in the UK. Iraq was the second most common nationality of resettled refugees in the UK between 2010-2019- with 1,876 Iraqi refugees resettled.

Department for Work and Pensions

Funeral Payments: Coronavirus

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they provide to low-income families to help pay for the funeral costs of family members who have died ofCOVID-19.

Baroness Stedman-Scott: For those in receipt of income related benefits or tax credits, the Funeral Expense Payments scheme can offer a significant contribution to the cost of a funeral. The scheme meets the necessary costs of a burial or cremation in full, and additionally offers up to £1000 to meet other funeral expenses. The value of this additional element was raised from £700 to £1000 on 8 April this year, offering additional help at this particularly difficult time. Budgeting Loans or Universal Credit budgeting advances can also be used for funeral expenses.

Home Office

European Arrest Warrants

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether a UK citizen couldbe extradited under the European Arrest Warrant after the end of the transition period; and if so, why.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The Withdrawal Agreement provides that procedures under the European Arrest Warrant Framework Decision will continue to conclusion only in circumstances where an arrest has already been made prior to the end of the Transition Period. The UK has a longstanding policy of not distinguishing between UK nationals and others in extradition proceedings.

Department for International Trade

Trade

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progresswiththe United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific paperless trade initiative.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: HM Government welcomes the efforts made by the participants of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific paperless trade initiative. Paperless trading enables businesses to confidently conduct transactions online and administrative processes are made more efficient and transparent. The COVID-19 pandemic has further illustrated the growing importance of digitising trade processes. The United Kingdom is keen to learn from this initiative and maximise opportunities for digital trade across all sectors of the economy.

Trade Agreements

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they undertake impact assessments to inform any trade deal negotiations.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: HM Government undertake a wide range of impact analysis to inform the negotiations of our trade agreements. We are committed to publishing scoping assessments prior to the launch of negotiations and to publishing our impact assessments following the outcome of negotiations.

Trade Agreements: USA

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plansthey have to consult (1) consumers, (2) non-governmental organisations,(3) unions, and (4) civil society groups, on their negotiations with the government of the United States.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: The Department for International Trade’s (DIT) negotiating objectives for a Free Trade Agreement with the US was informed by one of the largest consultations in HM Government history, with 158,720 respondents. This included responses from unions, civil society groups, other non-governmental associations, and individual respondents. The details on how this consultation contributed to our negotiating objectives were published on 2 March, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-approach-to-trade-negotiations-with-the-us. Throughout negotiations, the UK Negotiating team has consulted, and will continue to consult, a broad range of experts via advisory groups set up by DIT. This is in addition to a range of other engagement mechanisms, including roundtables and bilateral conversations.

Trade: Finance

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have toimprove access to trade finance; and what assessment they have made of the need for a review of small and medium enterpresise (SME) capital weighting requirements for SME lending, differentiating the risk weighting for low risk trade finance from other forms of higher risk finance.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: The Government supports trade finance through UK Export Finance (UKEF), whose mission is to ensure that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance. UKEF keeps its trade finance products under regular review and is making several improvements this year. In January 2020, UKEF and its bank partners agreed updated legal documentation for trade finance products to streamline processes and make it easier for the banks to access UKEF’s guarantee and support greater volumes of lending. More operational improvements will be rolled out in the Autumn to improve efficiency for banks accessing UKEF’s existing working capital and bond support products and ensuring more deals are approved in shorter timescales. Following an announcement made by my Rt Hon. Friend the Chancellor, UKEF will shortly launch its General Export Facility to support exporters seeking general working capital from their banks. We expect this product to make UKEF’s support accessible to a much wider pool of exporting companies, as eligibility is widened beyond support for specific export contracts. UKEF works closely with other parts of government, including the British Business Bank, on access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is actively engaging with non-bank providers of trade finance to ensure that there are alternatives available to SME exporters with a viable proposition who are not able to access the finance they require from the high street banks. UKEF is exploring how partnerships with non-bank financial institutions might help improve access to trade finance for smaller exporters.  Capital requirements are a matter for the Prudential Regulation Authority and HM Treasury.

Trade: Developing Countries

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government for alist of all UK development funded capacity building projects contributing to improving the international trading environment.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: Across HM Government – through our development budget – departments work together to help partner countries increase their trade and export driven economic growth, and secure benefits for those currently living in poverty. For example, through our Trade and Investment Advocacy Fund, Manufacturing Africa programme and our funding to the World Bank, we are supporting countries to better understand the impacts of COVID-19, design their policy response accordingly, engage in the WTO and ease the passage of goods across borders. All aid spending can be found at: bit.ly/3iCFRME.

Trade: Sustainable Development

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plansthey have to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into (1) trade policy objectives, and (2) trade negotiations.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel: The UK has long supported the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and this will continue as an independent trading nation. For example, we are committed to upholding the UK’s high environmental standards and HM Government has made clear that we will not compromise on these. As set out in the Manifesto, our trade deals will also be fair for developing countries. This is why we are seeking to ensure Free Trade Agreements with our partners consider impacts on developing countries.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

House of Lords: Oral Questions

Lord Blencathra: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans there are to provide training to members of the House of Lords to assist them with preparing concise and succinct supplementary questions.

Lord McFall of Alcluith: There are no plans to provide training to members of the type described. The Procedure and Privileges Committee agreed last month that all supplementary questions should be limited to no more than 30 seconds and ministerial replies should be succinct. This has been incorporated into the guidance that sets out the procedures for hybrid proceedings.